Diary - 4 Movies per weekend - TO - One in 4 Weekends

Its week #7 in lockdown - Work From Home (WFH) due to COVID19 at Chennai, India.

First two weeks was just chaotic to be honest… Week #3, on a Wednesday - I was about to have lunch and was feeling incredibly exhausted (read burn out) 😓. Since it was already half the week, took a moment to pause and look at how productive I was in this week. To my dismay, I couldn’t add even one single item onto my Done list.

I knew something was not right, wanted to dig deep - I looked at my calendar and realized there wasn’t even a single 1hr free slot. I counted the number of meeting I have attended only this week till now - it was 25! Planned meeting, this is excluding adhoc phone calls and IM chat(s) discussion/queries.

I decided to go back a little and see how my past 2 weeks have been, and it wasn’t any better. Though the team was delivering and it was business as usual - personally felt I was low on my actual contribution/work.

In the mean time - Scott had tweeted this

    Qurantine_Work != Remote_Work

I could easily relate to him - there were lot of additional chores I was running into esp with a 5yr old kid at home. If the worlds best productivity guru is talking about burn out - it actually feels good to know “I am not alone and its Ok”.

Since these are abnormal times, there wasn’t much I could do to fix my week day plans - decided to hang in there and go with the flow - for now!!

So, I decided to take a look at how I was doing over weekends - “Binge Watching!!" ➿. As a movie buff, I always thought watching movies (more…) was relaxing, but it wasn’t. It was just adding more strain - as I wasn’t spending enough time with family and supporting house hold chores. And when the weekend actually ended I was feeling more exhausted.

I needed support - So, I went online and started looking for productivity tips. And I stumbled up this one adhoc tip, which hit the nail - Light Bulb Moment!!

Always watch movies (tv shows) - only when you have someone to accompany you

Personally, this was possibly the best tip - I decided, from now onwards I am never gona watch any movie alone - It was an extremely hard decision.

Four weeks later, when I look back - I have watched just ONE movie (with my wife). Personally, feels much better - I feel I have lots of time over the weekend. I am able to spend time more effectively - writing a blog (like this), call up friends/ family and even try a hand on cooking (making tea 😉).

At the end of the day - I still get to work.. I am blessed. No Lie. ❤️ 💻 😌

For now … Stay home, Stay Safe - and remember - This too will pass !!